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At its 2017 Qualcomm 4G/5G summit yesterday, Qualcomm Inc. has announced that they have successfully trialed a 5G data connection on their X50 5G modem. Carriers and hardware partners across the world have been conducting field trials of 5G networks for a while now but this marks the first time a 5G data connection was successfully tested on a single-chip 5G modem that could fit in a smartphone.

The testing was done in Qualcomm’s San Diego lab using multiple 100MHz 5G carriers. Qualcomm says during their trial they were able to successfully establish a 5G data connection on the X50 modem using 28GHz mmWave frequency band, with download speeds reaching over a gigabit per second.

Additionally, Qualcomm has also announced its first 5G smartphone reference design, which the company says will enable them to test various 5G technologies including the X50 5G in a mobile form factor. On top of that, Qualcomm’s 5G smartphone reference design will also serve as a guide for other smartphone OEMs working on their first 5G-enabled smartphone.

The Snapdragon X50 modem was officially unveiled last year alongside the X16 LTE modem at Qualcomm’s 4G/5G summit and was supposed to start arriving in smartphones in the first half of 2018. But it now appears that won’t be the case as the company is now aiming for the commercial availability in 2019.

The Snapdragon X50 is designed to support the first wave of 5G-enabled smartphones. The modem is capable of hitting download speeds of up to 5 Gbps on 28 GHz millimeter wave frequency band. Moreover, the X50 can also be paired with a Snapdragon processor with a Gigabit-class LTE modem to provide multi-mode 4G/5G capability via dual connectivity.

The Snapdragon X50 5G modem is expected to commercially available in smartphones in the first half of 2019.

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